Rock Chords Enhance Church Experience
Christian band performs at Burlingame United Methodist Church

By Jennifer Livesey
[San Mateo Times, April 14, 2007]

It's Friday evening, and for the Morgenstern family, that means coming together to worship the Lord during a night of singing and celebration.

"There was a desire in this church for something like this for a long time," Kevin Morgenstern said. "Associate Pastor Laurie McHugh wanted to start a band and through word-of-mouth, either by my wife or my daughter, she heard I was a guitarist and asked me to get involved, to which I agreed."

Every Friday night and Sunday morning, the Morgensterns rock out with their Christian rock band, Healing Stream, at the Burlingame United Methodist Church.

Churchgoer Lynn Stanaway said this church has changed a lot since the band came along three years ago. She said the music is lively and really puts people in a good place. "This place is really welcoming and warm," Stanaway said. "And it doesn't hurt that the music is good."

Morgenstern, who is the lead guitarist and performs lead vocals, said the band has traveled a long road to get to where it is today.

"No one was here that could really put a band like this together," said the 54-year-old musician. "When I came along, there was a lot of work to be done, like planning practices, gathering talented people and just coming up with the money. Laurie and myself worked together and we've been able to create a really talented group of people."

His wife, Ursula, first became involved in the band singing backup. "My wife had her hands on this project before I did," said Morgenstern of Ursula who sings backup vocals and plays the tambourine. "In fact, I wasn't really involved in church anymore because I didn't like the direction the church was going. But when I was asked by my wife to join the band, I was really intrigued and decided to give it a shot."

Another player in the musical family is son, Matt, who started out playing the bass guitar and moved on to the electric guitar. "When my dad first approached me about being in the band, I wasn't thrilled or excited to jump right in," said Matt Morgenstern, 24. "But he told me just to give it a chance and I said OK."

Matt said playing with his dad has taught him a lot about himself as well as his father. "I learned a lot about how to put music together, which I never really knew the process," Matt Morgenstern said. "That really has stemmed from my dad, he'll come in with some music that maybe isn't quite complete and we work together as a band to finish the music. It's been a really great experience." Rounding out the musical family is daughter, Hailey, 15, who sings backup and on occasion, lead.

"It's really a great experience working with my family on a weekly basis," Matt Morgenstern said. "It gives me a reason to see my family more often because we're all committed to this project."

In watching the family there is no doubt that they enjoy what they are doing and being together. After greeting the other band members with hugs, kisses and friendly joking and catching up, Morgenstern takes the lead in starting the Friday night service; inspiring the congregation that has gathered to join in the celebration. At some points, clapping to the beat is almost mandatory.
A self-made musician, Morgenstern always had an interest in music. His first love was drumming on anything he could, but he said his parents bought him a guitar instead of the drums he wanted. He said he's glad the traditional church ceremonies have changed in the past three years since the band started.

"I think that people think that church is irrelevant or old and boring," Morgenstern said. "My hope for having this band is for people to have a real experience. I think that church should be a place where you can enjoy the music and the people and to where it's not the usual corny stuff people expect. I really want the experience to be enjoyable to people, like a football game where you get to meet real people, not people with fake smiles and attitudes toward God."

According to Matt, Healing Stream's objective isn't to play music, but to be able to worship in a new modern way. "It's not about the band at all," Matt said. "I mean we all love playing together, but our main goal is to worship God. If it was just about playing, we could have jam sessions in my dad's garage, but it's about much more than that and that's what we're here for, to worship."

You can see Healing Stream perform every Friday night's "Evenings at the River," which has a dinner at 6:30 p.m. beforehand for a meet and greet. On Sunday's they perform in "Mornings at the Well" at 9 a.m.

Burlingame United Methodist Church is located at 1443 Howard Ave. in Burlingame.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Livesey is a journalism student interning at the San Mateo Times, and a sister to one of the worshipers at Burlingame UMC.